Jeannie Kim, the Daniels Faculty's Assistant Dean of Academic Programs and Outreach, has been selected by the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) as a jury member for the 2016 Wheelwright Prize competition. The prize is an international competition for a $100,000 grant to support travel-based architectural research. When the prize was established in 1935, it was intended only for GSD graduates. However in 2013 it was relaunched as an international competition. 2016 marks the fourth year since the competition became open to all graduates of professionally accredited programs within the last 15 years. 

The Wheelwright Prize is currently accepting applications. The deadline for submissions is February 15.

Tonight marks the opening of the Future of Suburbia — an exhibition hosted by the MIT Centre for Advanced Urbanism. A number of Daniels Faculty alumni and professors were involved in the curation, design and construction of the exhibit including Fadi Masoud (MLA 2010), Matthew Spremulli (MArch 2011), and Assistant Professor Liat Margolis, who participated in a 2-day workshop in March 2015 as part of the Future of Suburbia Biennial.

The work showcased in the exhibition aims to expose the nuance and complexity of the suburban condition and visually document suburbanization around the world. Four design frameworks for future suburban conditions were produced to describe a future of suburbia that is heterogeneous, experimental, autonomous, and productive.

The exhibition centers on a dynamic physical model of a future polynodal suburb, which is complemented by contextual research displayed in text and graphics, and aerial videos of existing global suburbs.

Fadi Masoud — a Lecturer of Landscape Architecture and Urban Design at MIT, who also previously taught at the Daniels Faculty — was co-chair of the workshop and is on the exhibition team.

Matthew Spremulli — a Research Associate at the MIT Center for Advanced Urbanism, and previous Instructor at the Daniels Faculty — is the lead exhibition designer. 

The Daniels Faculty is one of the the academic sponsors of the event.

For more information visit the MIT Centre for Advanced Urbanism website.

Related:

• Liat Margolis participates in Future of Suburbia design charrette at MIT's Center for Advanced Urbanism
• Drew Adams (MArch 4), Fadi Masoud (MLA 2010) published in Design for Flooding
• Fadi Masoud / Magda Dobranowski / Carla Pareja project selected for Saint Étienne International Design Bienniale
• Matthew Spremulli awarded 2010-11 Howarth-Wright Fellowship
• U of T's Mason White and Lateral Office at Venice Biennale

Fast Company recently celebrated design work by Associate Professor Steven Fong and alumnus Lorne Gertner (BArch 1982) for Tokyo Smoke Found, a shop that specializes in coffee, clothing, and cannabis, located in Toronto's West End.

“The architecture of Tokyo Smoke's Toronto outpost reinforces the narrative of a gritty product having its Pretty Woman moment,” writes Diana Budds for Fast Company. “Like Julia Roberts's Vivian emerging from a Beverly Hills boutique prim, polished, and 'respectable,' the industrial-meets-modern interiors—designed with architect Steven Fong—speak to the power of packaging and branding to sway the pendulum of perception.”

Tokyo Smoke was founded by Alan Gertner and his father Lorne, who is also a member of the Daniels Faculty's campaign cabinet, a committed group of alumni and friends of the Faculty whose vision, passion, and expertiese are helping support the Faculty's ambition to relocate and expand the school at One Spadina Crescent — a site of deep historical significance in Toronto.

Last week Associate Professor An Te Liu was featured in the ninth insallment of a series by the Globe and Mail in collaboration with Wondereur called "Why we love the art we love."

The series explores the diversity of contemporary art by approaching creative minds across Canada and the world and asking them to share the work of a contemporary Canadian artist.

In last week's insallment, the Globe and Mail profiled Marianne McKenna, founding partner of architecture firm KPMB, who selected Liu's work for the seires. According to McKenna, Liu is "thinking about temporal and spiritual time; with these pieces he evokes the totemic representation of man, the order of the world, and yet it has a beautiful texture and materiality."

As part of the series, Wondereur created a photo documentary exploring Liu's artwork. In it, Liu describes his process. "I often begin with something familiar and 'strange-ify' it," he says. "I like the idea that the work can instill a sense of curiosity and giv an opportunity to pause and reflect, and maybe scratch your head and wonder what it is you're looking at."

Works by An Te Liu. (Ryan Walker)

Visit the Globe and Mail's website for the full article.

The Architectural League of New York has named Architectural Studies graduate Omar Gandhi one of the up and coming “voices” of 2016.

The Architectural League’s annual Emerging Voices Award spotlights North American individuals and firms with distinct design “voices” that have the potential to influence the disciplines of architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design. The work of each Emerging Voice represents the best of its kind, and addresses larger issues within architecture, landscape, and the built environment. Other recipients of this year's award include:

• Alex Anmahian and Nick Winton, Principals and Co-Founders, Anmahian Winton Architects, Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Cesar Guerrero, Ana Cecilia Garza, Carlos Flores, and Maria Sevilla, Partners, S-AR, Monterrey, Mexico
• Frank Jacobus and Marc Manack, Principals, SILO AR+D, Cleveland and Fayetteville, Arkansas
• Jon Lott, Principal, PARA Project and Co-Founding Member, Collective-LOK, New York City
• E.B. Min and Jeffrey L. Day, Principals, Min | Day, San Francisco and Omaha
• Rozana Montiel, Founder, Rozana Montiel | Estudio de Arquitectura, Mexico City
• Heather Roberge, Principal, Heather Roberge | Murmur, Los Angeles

Omar Gandhi is among several Daniels Faculty alumni to be given the prestigious award. Past recipients include Williamson Chong (2014), Carol Moukheiber and Christos Marcopoulos (2012), Mason White (2011), An Te Liu (2007), and Brigitte Shim (1995).

The practice of Omar Gandhi has been receiving significant media attention lately; he was recently profiled as “one of Canada’s most exciting emerging designers" in the Globe and Mail, and was named among the world’s top 20 young architects by Wallpaper magazine.

Associate Professor Aziza Chaouni was selected as a 2016 Science Leadership Program (SLP) fellow. Hosted by the University of Toronto, SLP is a 2+ day workshop that invites faculty members from U of T and other Canadian universities to participate in a series of hands-on training sessions on communications, outreach, and leadership in research. The sessions and panel discussions will be led by internationally renowned experts in science communication and science leadership.

Chaouni was nominated for the fellowship by Professor Ted Kesik. Fellows were selected to participate based on criteria such as excellence in research and teaching, leadership capabilities, and passion for communicating science. Participating faculty members will gain the tools they need to becme better communicators and more effective leaders, both on and off the university campus.

CBC's radio show Spark featured a segment on Making Camp — a project by Lateral Office that was presented at the Chicago Architecture Biennial and, later, the Daniels Faculty's Eric Arthur Gallery.

In the February episode, titled "Challenge the past to design campsites of the future," host Nora Young speaks with Lateral Office co-counders Lola Sheppard and Associate Professor Mason White about the evolution in camping and camp gear across North America. While innovations to camp gear has been made over the years, "there has been very little innovation in the campground itself," says Sheppard. 

"Our question was... if one were to redesign the campsite, what could it be today?" says White.

The project team, which also included Daniels MArch students Kinan Hewitt and Safoura Zahedi, explored how architecture could generate a new approach to campsite design. The result was a set of five campsite deisgns, each tailored to a specific terrain that can be found in Canada.

White says Making Camp recieved positive feedback after an early presentation to Parks Canada and that full-scale prototyping would be the next step to making this project a reality at campsites across Canada. 

Photos from the opening of the Januray-February exhibition at the Eric Arthur Gallery can be viewed here.

Daniels Alumnus Aaron Jacobson (MArch 2012) is receiving a lot of media attention for his new clothing line, Faan.

The gender-neutral clothing line is heavily influenced by Jacobson's background in architecture. "I'm not drawn to a red-carpet gown," he tells the New York Times Style Magazine. "I'm drawn to the proportions and shapes and construction details that you see every day."

After graduating from the Daniels Faculty, Jacobson went on to work in architecture firms in Beijing and Shanghai. It was in Shanghai's fabric district where he found himself drawn to the idea of clothing design. As the New York Times Style Magazine reports, Jacobson began designing pieces for himself; his early sketches more like architectural drawings. "I was even cutting sections through them, and blowing up details to try to explain the construction," he says.

Once his personal collection grew, he returned to the United States to continue expanding his line before officially launching Faan. According to Jacobson, his newest collection, Fall Winter 2016, is his "first collection that feels lived in."

A slideshow of the 14-piece collection can be seen here.

Alumnus Ben Watt-Meyer (MLA 2012) will be launching a new solo exhibit titled A New Archaeology for the Leslie Street Spit on March 3^rd at the Enoch Turner Schoolhouse. The exhibit is based on a previous installation Watt-Meyer created for the 2015 Gladstone Grow-Op, where it won the Jury's Choice Award and the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects / GROUND Magazine Award. This new series is a collaboration with the Friends of the Spit, and is part of the inaugural Myseum Intersections festival launched by the Myseum of Toronto. 

From the Myseum of Toronto website:

"Toronto’s largest constructed breakwater is literally built of rubble from the demolished walls of its lost architectural heritage. To see this place as a burial ground provides a moment to mourn our losses. Yet to celebrate it as the material evidence of Toronto’s dramatic post-war urban reconstruction is an opportunity to rediscover the transformation of lake fill into a landscape. Putting together historical records of demolished buildings with maps of the yearly growth of the spit, the project hypothesizes the resting place of some of the city’s lost structures. Next, the geographic origins of the rubble are identified, tracing the material cycle of Toronto’s brick and building stone from quarry to city and back to landscape."

The exhibit will be on display March 3 to 13, Thursday to Sunday from 12:00PM to 6:00PM.

Opening reception: March 3, 7:00PM – 9:00PM

Artist talk: March 12, 2:00PM

For more information, visit: http://myseumoftoronto.com/event/new-archaeology-leslie-street-spit

Daniels alumnus Sywa Sung (BArch 1994) was featured in the February 2016 edition of Air-Canada's inflight-magazine enRoute as part of its monthly "Leaders of the Pack" series, which profiles Canadian business travelers — and what they pack in their carry-on luggage.

After graduating from Daniels in 1994, Sung went on to expand his career in experiential design. He has created themed attractions all over the world and served as creative director for the 20th Century Fox World theme park set to open in Malaysia later this year, and Dubai in the near future. Sung has also provided creative direction and brand stewardship for Fox's Aliens vs. Predator franchises' massive themed Halloween maze experiences at both Universal Studios Hollywood and Orlando theme parks which debuted in 2014 to great success.

From the article by Caitlin Walsh Miller:

How did you get into this field?

I wanted to design in ways that you don’t get to as a traditional architect. One day, I was reading about Star Trek: The experience, a new attraction in Las Vegas. I light bulb went off: I realized you needed to draw and design for that kind of attraction - you needed an architect.

Sung's background in architecture and his connection to University of Toronto are highlighted in the conents of his carry-on, which include a custom-made U of T letterman jacket, a set square and scales, and the very same mechanical pencil he's been using since his days at Daniels.

Sungs profile can be found on page 38 & 39 of the February issue.